Junior Product Manager - Accessories & Off-Road

Rapha exists to make cycling the most popular sport in the world, and our product team comes to work every day to create the ultimate riding experience with the world’s best cycling products.

Responsible for working with senior leaders on the strategy, range architecture and roadmap for Accessories and Off-Road, you will focus our brand on the right priorities by crafting a vision, range and product briefs that are grounded in insight, hands on knowledge of Rapha’s riding categories and an obsessive knowledge of the customer.

Accessories includes hard goods such as eyewear, footwear and luggage as well as riding essentials which sit outside of Pro Team, Core, Classic and Brevet. Off-road covers MTB and the potential to expand Rapha’s gravel apparel offering.

The Product Management Team at Rapha is the voice of the customer, they are responsible for building out product categories to achieve Rapha’s commercial goals. This is a central function which interacts with all aspects of the business, from Design and Development to Marketing.

We love cycling in all its forms, from the city streets to the highest peaks. And we know its power to transform lives. Led by innovation, we embody this love through a dedication to the world’s greatest sport, by setting a new standard in design and pushing the cutting edge of performance and human craft.

THE ROLE:

Planning

• Work with the Head of Product Management to build out category strategies, including market sizing, competitor analysis and customer research to document a 360 knowledge of your categories.
• Work with the Head of Product Management to build the 5 year product roadmap and architecture that delivers against key KPI’s including sales, margin and style count. Meeting the needs of marketing, retail, regions, merchandising and design.
• Be responsible for stage gates in the Critical Path and maintain rhythm and focus on the development of new seasons.
• Work with the Head of PM and have overall responsibility for creating category overviews for current and next year with short product descriptions to help the business and wholesalers understand what is coming (must be customer facing/aesthetic).
• Identify new product opportunities and collaborate with Design and Merchandising to craft world class product briefs that clearly articulate the strategy, experience, features and commercial aspects of each new product.

Voice of the customer

• Build research expertise and design and gather insights from regions, GM’s, Rapha Athletes, customers, market research and PowerBI in order to build a world class product line. Insight should focus on the use of survey tools for quantitative data gathering alongside focus groups and depth interviews for qualitative data.
• Bring customer obsessiveness and deep knowledge of categories to inspire Design and Development teams.

Collaboration

• Work with teams on product improvements and benchmark against existing products and competitors on e.g. weight, performance, durability, quality, finishing.
• Engage with Brand Marketing to ensure Rapha is creating effective Go-To-Market strategies that resonate with the customer and maximise launch potential.
• Ensure the business is sufficiently educated on new product and seasonal launches through deep dive briefings and product videos with customer facing departments such as clubhouses, customer services and regions.
• Attend fit sessions with Design & Development to bring knowledge of riding position, fit and customer needs.
• Work closely with the wear testing lead to ensure feedback is listened to and actioned throughout product development.
• Build relationships with Wholesale and work on initiatives to build their product knowledge and improve their relationship with their customers, this includes visits to wholesalers to showcase product (incl. prototypes) and gather insights.

Measuring success

• Review the success of each key product launch inline with key metrics, customer, market and regional feedback, ensuring learnings are fed back into future products.

THE CANDIDATE:

• A strong interest in cycling with an understanding of, or a desire to learn about the Rapha product range
• Proactive, dynamic interpersonal style, able to act between different departments in a diplomatic, non-confrontational manner
• A curiosity to learn more about your categories and uncover problems to solve for Rapha’s current and future customer
• Experience of presenting to groups in a professional environment
• A confident, independent thinker. Able to build new capability in an organisation at the same time as delivering against the key responsibilities.
• Equally comfortable working unsupervised & within a team
• Strong analytical skills and numerical dexterity
• Knowledge of Centric PLM or equivalent software is desirable but not essential

Working at Rapha

We are continuously looking into ways to invest in our employees and build a better working culture and environment. Here are just some of the internal benefits we offer.

• Flexible working hours
• Support ad-hoc remote working during the week - Monday-Thursday in the office
• Free barista coffee and social drinks in the office
• Monthly department social events and quarterly office social away days
• We offer a flexible riding benefit to allow you to go out riding on a Wednesday morning with colleagues or learn to cycle to cycling through our Getting Started Scheme.
• We offer all our employees a 50% apparel discount and a discount for family and friends
• An annual clothing allowance
• Free membership to the Rapha Cycling Club
• Company Pension Scheme
• Enhanced Parental Leave and Pay